UN names Gaza aid coordinator as Israel blocks automatic visas

WASHINGTON – United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres named a senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, even as Israel warned it will no longer automatically issue visas for representatives of the world body.

Ms Sigrid Kaag, who is the outgoing Dutch finance minister, will be responsible for coordinating and monitoring humanitarian relief delivery to Gaza.

She will also establish a UN mechanism to accelerate aid distribution, the secretary-general’s office said in a statement.

Ms Kaag, who began her career at Shell and has held other UN positions, is set to take office on Jan 8, 2024.

Hours before her appointment on Dec 26, Israel announced its move to end blanket visa approvals for representatives of the world body.

Instead, Israel will consider each visa on a “case-by-case” basis, Mr Eylon Levy, a government spokesman, said at a news conference.

The move followed a refusal by Israel to renew the visa of Ms Lynn Hastings, who was the UN humanitarian coordinator for Palestinians, alleging that she refused to condemn Hamas for its Oct 7 attacks.

While Mr Levy’s statements on Dec 26 indicated that Israel intended to take a tougher stance towards the UN, it was unclear what meaningful changes it planned to implement to the visa process.

In an e-mail, a spokesman for the UN, Mr Stephane Dujarric, said all employee applications were reviewed on a case-by-case basis already.

Asked for clarification on Mr Levy’s remarks, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government used to approve visa applications by UN personnel almost immediately and that that would no longer be the case.

Ms Kaag’s appointment follows a contentious UN Security Council resolution on

increasing the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip

.

The text, initiated by the United Arab Emirates, urged Mr Guterres to choose a humanitarian envoy for the region and called for the use of all routes into Gaza for the delivery of aid, including the Kerem Shalom border with Israel. 

Ms Kaag, whose husband is Palestinian, became the leader of the progressive Democrats 66 party in 2020 and then the country’s first female finance minister in 2022, after the party won a historic 24 seats in the election a year earlier.

In 2021, she resigned as foreign minister after Parliament said she had mishandled the Afghanistan evacuation crisis after the Taliban seized power.

After Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Cabinet unexpectedly collapsed in July amid infighting over refugee policy, Ms Kaag announced that she would quit Dutch politics, citing threats from conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists.

Her party lost more than 60 per cent of its parliamentary seats in the November election after her departure.

Dutch Climate Minister Rob Jetten, who replaced Ms Kaag as the leader of the Democrats 66, will oversee the Finance Ministry until the party nominates a new caretaker minister.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller praised Ms Kaag’s appointment, saying: “We look forward to coordinating closely with Ms Kaag and the UN Office for Project Services on efforts to accelerate and streamline the delivery of life-saving humanitarian relief to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”

Separately, US President Joe Biden spoke with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on efforts to gain the release of hostages being held in Gaza and to bolster humanitarian assistance to the territory, the White House said on Dec 26 evening.

Israel has said the UN has taken a one-sided approach, pressing Israel to halt its attacks in the Gaza Strip while failing to condemn Hamas militants for

the Oct 7 attack on Israel

that killed about 1,200 people and set off the conflict.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry run by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the US and European Union. BLOOMBERG, NYTIMES